Like in many other South-East-Asian counties April 13th was the beginning of the traditional New year: Songkran. Like the Chinese New Year, it was in the past was based on an astronomical calculation which varied each year. But now it has a fixed date. People go to the temples and it was an interesting tour to Ayutthaya, about 1.5 hours drive North of Bangkok. The most obvious part of the party is though that everybody is throwing water at everybody. Nobody who is not at least equipped with a water gun, bucket or a hose. People roam around on pick up trucks and perform heated water battles in the streets, and it is really great fun.

Ayutthaya was the capital of the Ayutthaya Kingdom which was founded by King Ramathibodi in 1350 AC and destroyed by the Burmese Army in 1767. The ruins are accessible in different sites, but also many relicts are slowly taken by modern life. It is a very impressing place to go to and reminds of Angkor and Siem Reap. You may download the GPX-file by clicking here. Map plots of the way to go there and the main sites to visit, please find below.